EENI Global Business School

Leo Tolstoy, Non-Violence, Christian, Orthodox


Share by Twitter

Syllabus of the Subject

Kingdom of God is Within You (Leo Tolstoy) Influence on Gandhi

  1. Leo Tolstoy (Russian Orthodox writer): The Kingdom of God is Within You
  2. The Ahimsa vision of the Non-Violence of Tolstoy
  3. Influence on Mahatma Gandhi, Quakers, and Martin Luther King

E-learning Course Master, International Business

“The Kingdom of God is Within You”

The Subject “Leo Tolstoy (Russia, Orthodox)” belongs to the following Online Programs taught by EENI Global Business School:

Doctorate: Ethics, Religions & Business.

Doctorate in International Business (DIB) Online

Master: Religions & Business.

Masters in International Business and Foreign Trade (MIB)

Courses: Orthodoxy and Business, Christianity & Business.

Orthodox Christianity, Ethics and Global Business

Russian Federation: Russian Economy, Ports of Russia Vladimir Potanin, Helena Baturina, Alexander Lebedev...

Foreign Trade and Business in Russia

Languages: Masters, Doctorate, International Business, English or Study Master Doctorate in International Business in Spanish Tolstoi Study Doctorate in International Business in French Léon Tolstoï Masters Foreign Trade in Portuguese Tolstoi.

Ahimsa (Non-Violence) and International Business. Jainism

“How can kill people, when it is written in God's commandment: 'Thou shall not kill'?” Tolstoy

The Russian Writer Leo Tolstoy was born in Russia in 1828 and died in 1910. Tolstoy is considered one of the greatest novelists of all time: “Anna Karenina,” “War and Peace,” or “The Brothers Karamazov.”

Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy, Non-Violence, Christian, Orthodox, The Kingdom of God is Within You

Leo Tolstoy was an Orthodox Christian and a strict vegetarian. We can consider one of the initiators of Christianity spiritual revolution.

His Ahimsa - Non-Violence vision came mainly from his reflections on the “Sermon on the Mount” of Jesus. For Tolstoy the:

“Law of love was present in all the Religions of the World.”

In his book “The Kingdom of God is Within You” (1894) - was censored in Russia, and had to be published in Germany-, will be one of the key works of the principle of the Non-Violence, and will have a significant influence on other spiritual leaders like Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr.

The conclusions of this work are the culmination of thirty years of “Christian Anarchist” thinking of Tolstoy and establish a new organization of society based on a literal Christian interpretation, especially in non-violence.

The book's title is borrowed from Luke 17:21. In the book, Tolstoy speaks of the principle of non-violent resistance when a person faced with the violence, as taught by Jesus Christ.

According to his ethics, any Government involved in a war is against the Christian principles.

Tolstoy criticises the Russian Orthodox Church by the total symbiosis with the State.

The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, Henry David Thoreau (American philosopher), Upanishads (Hinduism) and Confucianism were the inspiration sources for Tolstoy.

Influence of Tolstoy on Gandhi.

In his autobiography “The Story of My Experiments with Truth,” Gandhi recognized the enormous influence that “The Kingdom of God is Within You” had on his Ahimsa vision. In 1908, Tolstoy wrote to Gandhi his famous “Letter to a Hindu”:

“Just by using love as a weapon of passive resistance will allow the native Indian people overthrow the colonial British Empire.”

Premonitory words, which will become a reality under the Leadership of Gandhi in his struggle for the long and peaceful independence of India. Both leaders continued to be written until Tolstoy's death in 1910. Gandhi chose the name “Tolstoy Colony” to his second ashram in South Africa.

It is a beautiful example of the principle of Harmony of Religions, which we have called Principle Sri Ramakrishna:

A Christian spiritual leader inspires a Hindu spiritual leader.

Ahimsa (Non-Violence) and International Business. Jainism

Tolstoy also maintained correspondence with North American Quakers and surely influenced them on the implementation of the Non-Violence to George Fox, William Penn and Jonathan Dymond.

Religions and Business - Christians Spiritual Leaders - Orthodox Civilization.

Gita-Ramakrishna Institute (Es).


(c) EENI Global Business School (1995-2024)
We do not use cookies
Top of this page

Knowledge leads to unity, but Ignorance to diversity